Damsel In Distress
by Jorja-Fan23
Summary: NEW CHAPTER 12! COMPLETE! Grissom and Sara investigate the unusual murder of a woman in her apartment, Casefile GSR
1. Default Chapter

**Title:  **Damsel in Distress (1/?)****

**Author:  **annefishermn@yahoo.com (aka Jorja-Fan23)****

**Disclaimer:  **I don't own CSI or anything related to CSI.  I am just playing with someone else's characters for a while, please don't sue.

**Feedback: ** Welcome!  Please keep it constructive though.  Its ok if you don't like it, just tell me what you don't like or what you would like to see different in a respectful way, fair enough?****

**PART 1/?**

Sara pulled up to the apartment building and cut the engine.  She sat in silence in the blue and red flashing light coming from the cluster of cop cars.  She could see nothing but the outside of the crime scene, a rope hanging off of a second floor balcony, and a sliding glass door standing open.  Still, she knew what was waiting for her inside.  Grissom had called her on her way to the lab and told her to come straight here.  She had already heard the call on her scanner.  Female DB, early 30s, stabbed, lots of blood.  The rest of the crew was still wrapped up in other cases, so it was just her and Grissom on this one.  Alone.  She tried to shake off the nervous feeling that was settling in her stomach as she stepped out of the Tahoe.  'I can do this,' she told herself, 'time to focus.'

When she got to the top of the stairs she found Grissom and Brass standing in the hall talking.  Sara glanced in the door of the apartment and saw a woman laying on a couch with her hands folded on her chest, a single red rose in her grasp.  She might have looked peaceful, almost like she was laid out in a satin filled coffin, if not for the fact that she, the couch she was on, and the floor around her were covered with an extraordinary amount of blood.

"Posed." She said, more to herself than anyone in particular.

Brass looked up at her.  "Name is Mara Severs, single, 32 years old.  I have officers questioning the neighbors; so far no one heard anything.  Apartment manager found her; he came to fix a leaky faucet."

"An apartment manager that actually fixes things?  Maybe I should live here." Said Sara, still looking into the room.

"I wouldn't recommend it," answered Grissom, "security isn't very good.  According to the coroner she has been dead about seven hours."

Sara looked over at Grissom as if she just noticed he was there.  "Shall we process the scene?"

"After you," said Grissom, gesturing towards the apartment.

Sara walked into the apartment and took in the scene.  Besides the DB on the couch and all the blood in that area, the apartment looked relatively undisturbed.  The only other thing that looked amiss was the patio door which was standing wide open.  She began snapping pictures of the scene.

"This door was opened from the inside.  No pry marks, and the broomstick at the bottom of the door is standing against the wall by the door."  She snapped another picture.

"Front door doesn't look forced either," said Grissom from across the room, "and the manager said that the deadbolt was locked when he got here."

Sara looked out onto the patio.  The rope she had seen from the parking lot was hooked to the rail of the balcony with some sort of rock climbing hook.  "Do you actually think the perp threw this rope up here, and climbed up here like some sort of stuntman?"

"Possible." Said Grissom.  Sara jumped at the sound of his voice so close behind her; she hadn't heard him cross the room.  She turned to face him, and for a moment they stood face to face, only inches apart.  Both were incredibly conscious of the small distance between them.  It was Grissom who broke the silence first.

"I think I'll head back to the lab with the body.  You can finish up here." He turned and walked quickly out of the apartment.  Sara stood temporarily rooted to the spot, her heart beating rapidly in her throat.  She cursed herself for letting herself be affected by him like this.  She turned to begin gathering evidence, and to occupy her mind with other subjects.

Grissom got down to his Tahoe and sat in the driver's seat, absent mindedly tapping his fingers on the steering wheel.  He didn't really need to go back to the morgue with the Vic.  He just couldn't be so close to her right now.  He could rearrange everyone else so that they could be on separate cases, but that would look suspicious to everyone else.  Its not that he didn't like working with her, she was a great CSI, one of the best.  It was just that, as of late, he found her rather, well, distracting.  Instead of processing evidence his brain was consumed with memorizing the smell of her shampoo and contemplating the way she sometimes squinted her eyes and tilted her head to the side when she was concentrating on some piece of evidence.  Grissom sighed and started the engine.  He would just have to do what he always did when life got complicated.  Ignore it and move on.  Science and evidence were much easier to deal with.


	2. Chapter Two

Grissom was walking down the hall, lost in thought.  He had just come from the autopsy room where Dr. Robbins had some interesting findings.  He needed to touch base with Sara and see what she was able to find at the scene.  He found her in the lab, swabbing the Vic's jeans.  He paused and let himself watch her for a moment before making himself known.  She had that concentrated look on her face.  So intense.  That was part of what he was so attracted to, her sheer intensity.  It was almost as if her personality, the essence of Sara, was more concentrated and dense than other people.  'I have to stop thinking like this,' thought Grissom.  He cleared his throat, and Sara looked up from her work to see him standing in the doorway.

"What have you got?" asked Grissom in his best 'get down to business' voice.

"I have Greg running tests on DNA samples from the rose, some stray hairs that I found on the couch, the rope from the balcony, and I just found what may be semen on the front of the Vic's jeans.  I've got prints from two unknowns that seem recent, one on a glass of water on the counter and another on the doorknob.  The one on the doorknob had traces of the Vic's blood in it.  I still think there was only one perp, but we may have a witness, or at least the last person to see her alive.  There were odd smudges of blood on the carpet heading towards the door, each about 7 ½ feet apart.  Could be a spot of blood on one shoe, if the person takes really long strides, or it could be drips, I don't know.  It's hard to tell with the carpet being so old and matted.  It does tell us that the perp seems to have left through the door, and since it was locked when the manager got there that would imply that he had a key.  Other than that I have lots of cuts and stabs in the couch cushions, and these two odd metal rings I found on the floor under the couch."

"Metal rings?"

Sara tossed an evidence bag across the table to Grissom.  Inside were two small pieces of metal bent into rings about the size of a dime.

"These look like pieces of armor." Observed Grissom.

"For what, a mouse?" asked Sara, walking around the table to stand beside Grissom.

"No, for a man." He replied, raising one eyebrow and looking at Sara over the tops of his glasses.  

"These look like links from chain mail armor.  Homemade I would guess, and poorly if there are links falling off."

"Great," said Sara leaning on the table, "we've got a perp who climbs up balconies wearing chain mail armor and stabs women, just wonderful."

"It gets worse.  She was killed with a sword."

"A sword?"

"The wounds on the body were consistent with a double edged blade long enough to cut all the way through the body and out the other side.  I would guess that is how you got all the cuts and stabs in the couch cushions, from the sword coming out the other side of her body when he was attacking her.  She had many fractures and injuries that show she was beaten pretty severely right before she died.  And the x-rays show she also had quite a few healed facial fractures of varying ages.  She was beaten pretty regularly, could be a domestic. "

Sara tensed.  "Damn-it." She muttered under her breath.  She turned her back to Grissom and started rearranging evidence on the table.  He took a half step forward and moved to put a hand on her shoulder, but stopped with his hand frozen in mid air.  'I'm no good at this' Grissom thought to himself as he let his arm fall back by his side.

"Brass is getting her phone records for the last three months, and an officer should be here any minute with her computer.  If he was able to lock the door behind him, he had a key, he must have known her."  She said, still facing the table.  Was it his imagination or did it sound like she was about to cry?  Grissom was about to say something when Brass walked in.

"Got phone records here for you Sara," he said, setting a thick folder on the table.  Brass turned to Grissom.  "How's the case coming?"  Grissom didn't hear him; he was still watching Sara fidget with the evidence bags on the table.  "Hello?  Earth to Grissom?"  He shook himself out of his trance and looked at Brass.

"What did you say?"  
  


Brass rolled his eyes.  "Never mind.  By the way, Catherine is looking for you.  She wants to brief you on her case"

"Ok."

Grissom turned to follow Brass out of the room.  He paused to glance once more at Sara.  She still had not turned around.


	3. Chapter Three

**Part 3**

Grissom never managed to touch base with Sara again that night.  He got pulled into other cases that the rest of the team was working on.  It was good to have some distance, to clear his head.  He did look for her before he went home in the morning to get some sleep, but she was nowhere to be found.  He assumed she had gone home.  But as he entered the break room the next night, he saw that couldn't have been the case.  The table was littered with coffee cups, candy wrappers, and the packaging from a veggie burrito, a sure sign that Sara had been working on the case all day long.  He should have seen that coming.  He left the break room in search of Sara.  

He found her sitting on the floor with papers scattered all around every table, chair, and bare spot on the floor.  She was sitting cross-legged in the middle of the chaos, with her head in her hands and her elbows on her knees.  He entered the room cautiously, careful not to disturb any of the piles of papers.

"Sara?" he said softly.  He couldn't tell if she was awake or asleep.

"Do you have any Advil?" came Sara's muffled reply.

"Pardon?"  
  


Sara looked up. "Advil, Aspirin, something.  I've been staring at computer screens, printouts, and phone records for over 16 hours; I have one hell of a headache." She reached up and tried in vain to massage some of the tension out of her shoulders with one hand.

"What have you found?"

"Our Vic was quite the actress.  She carried on whole on-line relationships with dozens of different people using several different aliases.  Each one seems like a totally different person.  She is a member of 42 different e-mail list serves under 12 e-mail addresses.  I have everything here from S&M lists to cooking clubs and horseback riders groups.  It's as though she made up a whole slew of personalities and went and made friends for each of them."

"Any of these personalities have a propensity for men with swords who climb balconies?"

"Two lists," said Sara, reaching for a pile of papers. "Damsels in Distress and Looking for a Knight in Shinning Armor.  The Knight in Shinning Armor list is some kind of role playing where everyone pretends to live in medieval times.  She had two apparent boyfriends on that list.  Damsels in Distress isn't really medieval, but the name is.  By subject it is a support group of sorts for women in abusive relationships that want to be saved.  She held several conversations with people from that list.  It's the only list she was a part of that she used her real name.  I'm still trying to figure out who some of the people are, they are mostly set up as anonymous e-mail accounts, we are tracing to find the locations of the computers that the e-mails were written from."

"Have you eaten anything?"

Sara looked confused, what did that have to do with the case?  "Uh, I had a burrito at noon."  

Grissom looked down at his watch; it was almost 8:30pm.  "That was eight hours ago, you should take a break and get something to eat, the papers aren't going anywhere."

"I'm fine, I just need to get some Advil and get back to reading.  I'm sure there is something here to point at a suspect."  He was really worried about her.  He had learned long ago that he couldn't keep her from working herself to death when a case really struck her, but he could try to insist that she took at least minimal care of herself in the process.

"Sara, you really n-"

"Hey guys," said Catherine, peeking in the room.  "Tell me this isn't all paperwork to be done."

"No, just evidence to read.  Hey Catherine, do you have any Advil?"

"Wouldn't leave home without it, its in my locker, I'll go grab it."

"I'll come with you; I need to stretch for a bit."

Sara followed Catherine out of the room.  Grissom was left standing in the middle of the sea of paper, wondering how he was going to make it through this case with her, without losing his mind.


	4. Chapter 4

**Part 4**

Ten hours later Sara was still in front of the computer reading e-mails.  She was on the trail of several promising conversations.  Brass had just brought her the locations of some of the computers used to write the e-mails, and a few of the people that she was communicating with were either all roommates or they were the same person.  Sara was willing to bet it was the later, even though three different names were used.  Who knows, maybe she accidentally made friends with someone with as many personalities as she apparently had.  In another hour she was going to pay a visit to them, along with an officer or two.  Grissom would probably want to come with; she really ought to find him.  As if on cue he picked that moment to stick his head in the door.

"Sara, go home."

"No."  She looked up at him defiantly, determination showing clearly in her eyes.

Grissom decided not to push the issue right now.  "I tracked down the ex-boyfriend of our vic.  A coworker of hers got me his name and address.  He was most likely the source of the old facial fractures found during the autopsy.  Apparently she was a punching bag for him for several years; she just broke up with him three months ago."

"Sounds like motive to me."

"Exactly.  So since you to stubborn to get some much needed sleep, would you care to accompany me on a visit to a Mr. Aaron Barker?"

Sara looked startled, "Aaron Barker?" she said, reaching across the desk to grab a folder on the other side, she opened it and read the first page in the file.  "Aaron Barker of 8432 Northway drive?"

Now it was Grissom's turn to look surprised.  "How did you know that?"

"Three of our Vic's internet personalities have been talking to three of his internet personalities for about a few months; we traced the IP address from some of the e-mails."

"I guess it's time we pay Mr. Barker a visit," replied Grissom.

Sara's stomach growled audibly.

"That reminds me, here." Grissom said, tossing a bag into Sara's hands.  "Egg salad sandwich, a pickle, and an apple.  If you aren't going to sleep, you are at least going to eat something.  No arguments."  Then almost as an afterthought, he added, "I hope you like egg salad.  I knew enough not to get you a ham sandwich, but other than that I really didn't know what you would like."

"Egg salad is wonderful, thank you."  Was it her imagination, or was he almost blushing?  Sara let out a small smile in spite of herself.  Sometimes she thought he really did care about her.  Other times she wasn't so sure.  She walked around the desk to get her coat which was sitting on a chair by the door.  Grissom picked it up for her and held it up.

"Allow me."

Sara slipped her arms into the coat and felt his hands rest on her shoulders for just a moment longer than they needed to.  She turned around to face him, and felt her heart skip a beat.  Why did she feel so different around him?  Why couldn't she just do her job?  What was it about him?  She forced herself to take a step back to break the spell.  She picked up the bag with the food Grissom had brought her and took out the sandwich.

"Want half?"

"No thanks, I had chocolate covered grasshoppers in my office a little while ago."  Sara rolled her eyes and followed him out the door.  Sometimes she wondered about him.


	5. Chapter 5

**Part 5**

They pulled up in front of a small blue house, nondescript.  It didn't look like anyone was home.  Sara finished off the last of her pickle and took a drink of water.  She looked over at Grissom in the driver's seat, and discovered that he was staring at her with an odd look on his face.

"Take a picture, it'll last longer."

"Are you sure you are ready for this?  It's been a day and a half since you have slept."

"I'm fine, and the two cop cars that followed us here will make sure we both manage to question the man safely."  Sara got out of the truck and started walking up to the front door.  Grissom sighed and followed, wondering if she would ever let anyone help her with anything.  He got to the front steps just as she rang the bell.

"Thanks for waiting"

"No problem"

The door opened to reveal an overweight middle-aged man in his underwear.  Sara suppressed a laugh.

"Can I help you?" he asked.

"We're crime scene investigators from the Las Vegas crime lab.  Are you Mr. Aaron Barker?"  Grissom asked.

"Yes I am; what can I do for you?"  He reached down to scratch himself and Sara had to avert her eyes.  At least they knew he wasn't packing a weapon.

"We are going to need to ask you a few questions."

"I'm busy."

"Well, if you don't want to talk to us now, I could have this officer escort you to the station and we can talk there."  Grissom gestured to the officer standing in the driveway about ten feet away.

"No need, I'll talk." He grunted, obviously annoyed.

"Mr. Barker, would you mind if I took a look around your yard?"  Sara asked.

"Whatever floats your boat." He answered, scratching himself again and looking Sara up and down.  She left Grissom to handle the questioning; she needed to get away from that guy and all of his scratching.  She walked around the side of the house.  There really wasn't much in the yard, some gardening tools, and a hose.  When she got to the back yard she saw nothing but a very messy tool shed.  A noise behind her made her jump and she whipped around, hand on her gun and ready to draw it.

"Whoa, sorry Miss, I didn't mean to startle you."  Sara relaxed.  Maybe she was a bit jumpy.  She had just about drawn her weapon because she heard a man in a wheelchair in the next yard.

"It's fine.  My name is Sara Sidle and I'm with the Las Vegas crime lab, mind if I ask you a few questions?"

"Not at all, what can I do to help?"

"Do you know your neighbor here, Aaron Barker?"

"We aren't social.  He is a bit uptight for me, always yelling and ranting about something or other."

"Did you know this woman?"  Sara handed him a picture of the Vic.

"Yeah, that's his ex-girlfriend, Mara Severs.  Nice woman.  I was glad she finally tried to leave him a few months ago."

"Tried?"

"Well, she left, but men like Aaron never really give up, he still thought he owned her.  She got a restraining order on him, but I still think he was after her."

"What makes you think that?"

"Every time I talked to her she seemed so afraid.  We were always friends; I was one of the only people she felt safe talking to about Aaron.  I guess men that use wheelchairs aren't much of a threat.  I heard on the news what happened to her.  That's too bad.  But at least she is safe now, he can't hurt her anymore."

"When was the last time you talked to Mara?"

"Four days ago.  We have lunch every week.  Just to socialize with people face to face.  I don't get out much, my brother works a lot and we can't afford a van that would allow me to drive, so I am at home a lot.  She told me Aaron had been calling her again.  He was sorry and he wanted to get back together, he said that he missed her.  She was actually thinking of taking him back.  I tried to talk her out of it, but I don't think she was listening.  I got an e-mail from her the next day saying she was going to see him, to talk.  I told her I didn't think it was a good idea, but she was so lonely.  And stubborn, she was one of the most stubborn people I knew."

Sara reached into her pocket and pulled out a business card.  "Here is my card; will you call me if you think of anything else?"

"Of course.  I had better get back in the house.  My brother is getting back from a conference this afternoon and if he sees what a mess I have left all over the house he'll be pretty mad.  Good luck with your case, I hope you catch him."


	6. Chapter 6

**Part 6**

Grissom was standing by the truck talking on his cell phone when Sara walked around to the front of the house.  He ended his call just as Sara approached.

"Hey Griss, get any interesting answers?"

"Hop in, I'll tell you on the way to the lab."  Grissom got in the driver's seat, and Sara went around and got in the passenger's side.

"He admits to being in her apartment the day she was killed, but he says that he didn't do it.  According to him he had gone over to her apartment to discuss the possibility of getting back together.  He says that he went over in the morning; they both work nights so they met for breakfast.  They went back to her apartment, ate, and things got amorous.  Somewhere in the middle of the disrobing she wanted to stop.  He admits to getting very angry and hitting her.  That would account for the fresh fractures and bruises, and likely also the semen you found on the Vic's jeans.  But he says when he left she was crying and upset, or as he put it she was 'a sniveling mess,' but she was very much alive.  Since just being there was a violation of the restraining order, we can bring him in and hold him.  I just got off the phone with Brass, he is going to press for a warrant so we can get a DNA sample to run, and he wouldn't give one willingly.  You find anything?"

"I talked to a neighbor.  Friend of the Vic.  Benny Holstein.  He confirmed that Mr. Barker used her for a punching bag for a long time.  He said that she was thinking of taking him back, but he hadn't talked to her in a few days.  He got an e-mail from her the morning she died saying she was going to meet Aaron, that's the last he heard of her.  He is going to call if he thinks of anything else."

"So what do you think, Sara?  Call it."

"I think that Aaron talked Mara into seeing him so he could apologize, and he went to her apartment and killed her.  She had been trying to break up with him.  If he couldn't have her, no one else could."

"So how do you explain the rope, the sword, and the pieces of armor we found?" Grissom asked.

"Who knows?  She was posed; the rest of the scene was probably set, too.  Just to throw us off the trail, make it look like something more complicated than a deadbeat guy killing his ex-girlfriend."  Sara was getting visibly upset talking about this.  Grissom was glad Aaron was in the cop car behind them, Sara might have gone after him if he was near them.

"I still think something is off, something doesn't feel right.  If he killed her it would have been more like a crime of passion.  Here she was posed, and the scene was set to look a certain way, that speaks to premeditation."

"So he planned to kill her, big deal, he's still guilty."

"Perhaps.  But it is also possible that we are chasing the wrong man.  There is no doubt that he is not a nice man, but I am not so sure he killed her.  We need to look at all of the evidence, not just the pieces that point to him."

They rode in silence for a while, Sara seething in anger and Grissom lost in thought.  When they arrived at the lab Sara moved to get out of the truck, but Grissom stopped her.

"Wait Sara."  Sara looked over to Grissom, wondering what he wanted.  His voice sounded odd, something was wrong.  "You need to rest.  Why don't you go home and get some sleep.  It will be a while before Brass gets the warrant for his DNA, then Greg will have to run that and his prints against the evidence you got from the scene.  There is nothing that you need to be doing right now, and you really need to sleep."

"Are you insane?  I'm not going home until we nail this guy to the wall!!  That bastard beat the shit out of his girlfriend for years, and then killed her when she tried to get away.  I am not going home until I know we have him for this."  Sara's anger was shifting from the case to Grissom, how dare he try to send her home when they were about to nail this guy?

Grissom looked over at Sara.  She looked like hell.  She had been up for two days straight, her eyes were puffy, and she really looked on the verge of collapse.  Still, he could see the steely resolve in her eyes; she was not going to back down.  Man that woman had passion.  Grissom felt an odd stirring in the pit of his stomach.

"Ok, how about we make a deal.  You can take over my office and take a nap on my couch.  I promise I will wake you up if we get something hot.  Otherwise, you need to get some rest or you are bound to collapse partway through next shift."

Sara felt her anger at Grissom melt.  She knew she needed to sleep, she felt like hell, and she probably didn't look so hot either.  She could see it in his eyes.  He was normally so wrapped up in science he wouldn't notice if the lab was falling apart, and here he was, worried that she hadn't slept enough.  It was so sweet.

Grissom saw Sara relax and was relieved; she wasn't going to kill him after all.  At least not right now.  She was so passionate about some cases; it really took a toll on her.  He wanted so badly to help her, to make her see that she couldn't keep doing this or she would burn out.  What he really wanted was to take her in his arms and hold her and tell her everything was going to be ok, but that he wouldn't even admit to himself, much less to her.

"Ok Griss, you win, I'll sleep in your office.  But if I find out you didn't wake me up for important news, don't think I won't kill you."

Grissom smiled to himself as he and Sara got out of the truck and headed into the lab.  It was not often someone won an argument with Sara Sidle.


	7. Chapter 7

**Part 7**

Grissom sat up and stretched.  His back was killing him.  He had no idea how people managed to sleep on this couch, it was the most uncomfortable thing in the world.  Grissom was in the break room.  He had gotten the DNA sample from Aaron Barker and had decided to get some sleep before the results came back.  The couch in his office was a lot more comfortable, but it was currently occupied by Sara Sidle, and he wasn't about to disturb her.  He looked at his watch, 7:00pm; the rest of the night shift should be here soon.  He stood up and stretched.  He had better go and check on the DNA results before Sara woke up, if she thought he wasn't working hard enough while she was sleeping she would never forgive him.  When he got to the lab he found Greg already there.

"Evening, Greg.  What are you doing here so early?"

"Covering for day-shift.  They had two people flake out and leave this week, the DNA lab person quit, and the woman from the print lab was fired because she had been losing evidence and not running some prints at all.  Wonderful woman."  Greg yawned.  "Now I know what you guys go through when you pull double and triple shifts."

"The perks of being a CSI.  Do you have results for me from the samples I dropped off earlier?"

"From Aaron Barker?  Yes I do.  And I have good news and bad news.  His DNA matches the semen found on the outside of the Vic's pants, and on the water glass Sara found and printed."

"What's the bad news?"

"The epithelial on the rope is not a match, and the skin cells from under the Vic's fingernails are also not a match to Aaron Barker, but they are a match to the rope."

"So he isn't our killer."

"That is for you CSI types to decide, I just process the evidence."

"Thanks Greg."  Grissom walked out of the lab and right into Nick.

"Hey Boss, how's your case?"

"Not so good, yours?"

"I was just coming to ask you to give me a case.  I wrapped mine up last night, remember?"

"Right, I forgot.  Why don't you join Sara and I on our case, we don't seem to be getting very far on our own."  Grissom and Nick went to the break room and Grissom brought him up to speed on the case.  Then he sent him off to look at the evidence for himself and see if he was able to catch something that he and Sara had missed.  After checking in with the others to see how their cases were going, Grissom headed towards his office.  It was time to wake up Sara.

Grissom opened the door to his office as quietly as he could and stepped inside, closing the door behind him.  The only light in the room came from the lamps on a few of the cages of his various bugs and spiders.  Sara was sound asleep on the couch, curled up on her side using her jacket as a pillow.  She looked so sweet; he really didn't want to wake her up.  Plus, when she found out that Aaron Barker was probably not guilty, she would throw a fit, he really wasn't looking forward to that either.  He sat in a chair and watched her sleep.  There was no harm in letting her get a few more minutes of precious sleep.  He wondered what she could be dreaming about.  He could see her eyelids fluttering and she was almost smiling.  He hoped it was a good dream, the real world was hard enough, he thought all dreams should be good ones.  For a moment the idea of waking her with a kiss, like the fairy tale Sleeping Beauty, crossed his mind, but he forced it back in his mind.  He was in denial about his feelings for Sara, and he rather liked it that way, much less complicated.

Grissom moved forward and gently put his hand on her shoulder, lightly rubbing her arm to coax her into consciousness.

"Sara, time to wake up." He said softly.

Sara mumbled something in her sleep and rolled onto her back.  She lazily opened her eyes.  When she saw Grissom there she sat bolt upright on the couch.

"What?…how?…when?…oh God, Grissom.  You scared the shit out of me!  How long have you been sitting there, was I talking in my sleep?  What happened with the case?  How long have I been sleeping?"

"Slow down, Sara, one question at a time.  I just got here to wake you up, you mumbled something in your sleep but I have no idea what you said, and you have been sleeping for almost nine hours."

Sara relaxed a little and rubbed the sleep from her eyes.  "What about the case?"

"Bad news there, Aaron isn't our guy.  His DNA was on the water glass and the semen was his, but nothing else was.  The DNA on the rope, and the skin under her fingernails was not a match to him; someone else was in that apartment and killed her.  The evidence seems to support his version of the story after all.  Nick is looking over the evidence, we'll see if he is able to find something that we missed."

"That can't be, that guy is guilty as sin.  He has to be.  He beat the shit out of her for years, this time he went too far.  I know I'm right."

"Sara, we can't make the evidence say something that we want it to; we just have to let it tell us its story."

Sara stood up and grabbed her coat from the couch.  "I'm going back to talk to Benny Holstein.  Maybe he has thought of something new, or maybe he saw Aaron come home with a bloody sword, I don't know.  I just can't sit here while Mara's killer is going to walk.  I have my cell, call if you find something new."  And with that she walked out of his office.

As she pulled out of the parking lot, Sara thought about her dream.  She had dreamed that she was a princess in a castle and Grissom came riding up on a white horse to save her from something.  Then they rode off into the sunset together.  She shook her head.  What a silly juvenile dream.  She really wasn't the damsel in distress type.  She hoped Grissom had told the truth when he said that he didn't know what she had mumbled in her sleep.  He did not need to know that she had been dreaming about him.  That would just be weird.  He would probably try to get her committed or something.  Damsels in distress and white horses, and Grissom as a knight to boot.  She was seriously losing it.  Oh well, she had the case to think about now.  It was time to put another deadbeat boyfriend behind bars.  Come hell or high water she was going to prove he was guilty.


	8. Chapter 8

**Part 8**

She pulled up in front of the house and cut the engine.  She didn't really know what Benny Holstein could tell her, she just hoped he had something that could help.  She hated the idea of that deadbeat being set free because she couldn't explain all of the evidence at the scene.  She needed some answers, but she didn't even have the questions yet.  She got out of the car and walked up the ramp to the front door, what the heck, she'll improvise.  As least it would give her something to do besides dream about her boss.  She reached up and rang the doorbell.

"Coming!"

The door opened to reveal Benny, with a black cat sitting on his lap.

"Hi, my name is Sara Sidle, I'm investigating the death of Mara Severs; we met the other day in your backyard."

"Yes, I remember you.  What can I do for you?"

"Would you mind if I asked you a few more questions?"  
  
"Of course not, come on in."

Sara stepped into the house.  It looked like a fairly standard two story house.  Except for what looked like some sort of lift to get to the second floor.  Sara imagined that was how Benny got his chair up the stairs.  There were almost no decorations; everything was pretty bare; there was not a family picture or anything in site.

"This way, we can go into the living room to talk."  Benny rolled into the next room, and Sara followed.  "Have a seat.  Are you alright?  You look rather distressed."

Was her exhaustion that obvious?  "You sound like my boss.  I'm fine, I'm just a little tired; it comes with the territory working odd shifts."  Benny nodded.

"Your boss, the man who was here talking to Aaron Barker the day that we met in the yard?"

"Yes, that was him."

"He is worried about you.  I can tell."  Sara frowned slightly.  She was not used to being the one under scrutiny; she was supposed to be asking the questions.  Benny went on, "when we were talking he kept looking around the side of the house to check on you, he was watching you pretty close."

Now she was really getting uncomfortable.  "He must have been checking to see if I was done looking around so we could get back to the lab."

"Hmm, I don't know, I am a good judge of character, he was definitely watching you.  Am in budding into some office romance?  I don't mean to pry."

"No, no office romance," said Sara, shaking her head adamantly.  "It's nothing like that."  The image of her dream again flashed into her mind, but she pushed it away.  She quickly changed the subject.  "Can you think of anyone else who might have been with Mara that day?  She had a lot of friends on the internet, do you know if she ever met any of them in person?"

Benny looked surprised.  "You think it was someone else who hurt her?"

"I don't know.  But there is evidence that someone else was in the apartment around the time of the murder, a possible witness."

"I don't know that she ever met any of her internet friends in person, none that I know of anyway.  I doubt she would, most of the friends didn't even know who she really was.  She used a lot of fake names and personalities when she was on the internet."

Sara's interest was piqued.  "Did she tell you that?"

"No, I taught her that.  When you spend as much time as me cooped up in this house, you develop quite an imagination, and make up other people to live through.  My brother is a bit overprotective and doesn't like it when I leave the house.  It was a way we both used to escape what we were living in; she was doing that for over a year before she left Aaron."

"Is your brother around?  I would like to talk to him if I could, he may have seen something useful next door."

"He's upstairs in his room, but you don't want to talk to him.  He is in a particularly bad mood tonight, and besides, he was away at a conference when Mara was killed."  Benny rolled to the door of the room.  "Would you like something to drink?  I was about to make myself some tea when you rang.  Would you like some?"

"Sure, but first I would like to use your bathroom if you don't mind."

Benny frowned slightly.  "Upstairs, second door on the right.  But please be quiet, Alex doesn't like to be bothered."

"Of course, I'll be quiet as a mouse."  Benny smiled and rolled into the kitchen to make the tea.  Sara headed upstairs to look for Alex.  Maybe he knew something after all.

***Meanwhile, back at the lab…

Grissom was in his office catching up on paperwork.  He couldn't seem to concentrate.  His thoughts kept wandering to Sara.  He was so worried about her.  He knew she was a strong woman, and she could certainly take care of herself, but he wanted to help her anyway.  He wanted to make life easier for her, to protect her, and keep her safe.  Both of them depended on death and destruction for their livelihood, their jobs, but he wanted so much to bring brightness into her world.

"'Life is short and we have never too much time for gladdening the hearts of those who are traveling the dark journey with us.  Oh, be swift to love, make haste to be kind.'" Grissom quoted aloud to himself.  **Henri-Frédéric Amiel, **Swiss philosopher, smart man.  Maybe he needed to try a little harder to lighten Sara's world, to make her happy.  In truth, he wanted nothing more, he just was so bad at relationships in general that he was afraid to mess it up and end up hurting her.  Was she better off without him, or would they be better of together, sheltering each other from the horrors that they saw every day?****

A knock on the door interrupted his thoughts.  "Come in."

Nick stuck his head in the door.  "Grissom, I might have something for you on your case."

Grissom set aside his paperwork.  "Fill me in."

"I've got two things for you.  First of all, we got a hit on the other unknown print from the scene, the one with the traces of blood in it.  Apparently it was never run before; day shift had to fire someone that wasn't running all the prints."

"I've heard, go on."

"Well, the print belongs to Alexander Holstein.  He served time for murdering his little brother when he was 18.  His brother Benjamin was in a wheelchair and Alexander thought he was 'saving' him from teasing by killing him.  He pleaded insanity and was treated in a hospital in California.  Four years ago he was released and hasn't been heard from since."

Grissom could feel the little hairs standing up on the back of his neck. "Holstein.  Benny Holstein."  Grissom grabbed his jacket off the back of his chair.

"Where are you going?  Don't you want to hear about the wheelchair?"  Grissom stopped dead in his tracks, half way out the door, and turned around.  

"Wheelchair?"

"Sara found smudges of blood at the scene, all the same distance apart.  They are in the hall, too, leading towards the elevator.  They seem like they would have come from a wheel, since they are all the exact same distance apart, no one walks that precisely.  But it would have to be a big wheel to space the smudges that far apart.  The only thing I could think of is a wheelchair."

"Call Brass, have him send backup to the home of Benny Holstein, here is the address."  Grissom handed Nick a page of the paperwork he had been filling out.  "Sara is there, and I think she is in trouble.  I'll meet him there."

Nick took off down the hall in one direction, and Grissom went the other way, out to the parking lot.  God, he hoped she was ok.  He had no idea what he would do if she was hurt, or worse.  He couldn't even think about it, he had to save her.


	9. Chapter 9

**Part 9**

Sara reached the top of the stairs.  The top floor of the house looked much like the first floor, rather bland and undecorated.  But who was she to criticize anyone's decorating ability?  Lord knows she was generally way too busy with work to worry about getting new curtains for the living room or hanging up pictures of her family.

Sara walked on and came to the second door on the right, the bathroom.  She made a great show of flushing the toilet and running water and coughing to see if she could get Alex to come out of his room, but it wasn't working.  Well, better to try the direct approach.  Back one door to the first door on the right was what appeared to be a guest room, it was empty, and so Sara moved on.  There was one door on the left, Sara knocked.  "Alex?  My name is Sara Sidle and I am with the Las Vegas Crime Lab, could I ask you a few questions?"  Sara slowly opened the door to find herself staring into a walk-in closet.  Ok, that leaves door number four, end of the hall.  

Again Sara knocked, "Alex..." the door was ajar, and swung open at Sara's knock.  What she saw took her breath away.  She felt like she had just walked back in time.  The entire room was decorated in medieval decorations.  There were colorful banners, lances for jousting, pictures of ladies in elaborate dresses and knights on horses.  Every square inch of the room was covered, and in the center of the room, sitting on a round wooden table, was the sheath for a sword, and it was empty.  'Oh God,' thought Sara, 'This is not good.'

The creak of a floorboard behind her made her turn around, hand on her gun, and what she saw chilled her even more than the discovery of the room.  Benny was standing in the doorway, with the sword pointing directly at her heart, just inches away.  Standing?  But how?  The whole world just took on a rather surreal feel.

"Unless you want to feel this sword cut through your heart, I suggest that you place your firearm on the floor and slide it over to me, slowly."  Sara did as she was told.

"Benny, what are you doing?"

"Benny is downstairs making tea for his new friend; I am protecting my domain from a strange invader.  What is your purpose here?"

'Benny is downstairs, what is he talking about?'  Sara thought to herself.  'He is very defiantly the person I know as Benny; at least I think so…'

"Alex?" asked Sara, her voice shaking slightly.  Could he and his 'brother' be one in the same?

"I know who I am; I asked who you are, what is your purpose here?"

"My name is Sara Sidle; I am with the Las Vegas Crime lab.  I'm investigating the murder of Mara Severs."  Sara's eyes never left the tip of the sword.

"She wasn't murdered; she was saved, by me.  That is what a true knight does, saves people who are in distress.  I saved my brother Benny when we were younger, and now I saved Mara.  Sometimes only in death can we escape our torture."  He smiled at Sara as he began to walk forward.  Sara took compensating steps backward to avoid being impaled on the sword until she felt the table behind her, she was trapped.  Alex/Benny stopped.  "Is there something that you need to be saved from, my dear?  Perhaps the unrequited love of the man with the beard?"

"Um, no not really.  Except I would appreciate it if you would stop pointing the sword at me."  Alex/Benny smiled.

"In due time, my little damsel in distress, in due time.  First you shall follow me up into the attic.  I think it would be only fitting to have the princess in the highest tower when she is saved."

Sara's eyes grew wide.  He was going to kill her.  She was going to die in this house.  She felt a great lump rise in her throat.  It was best to just do what he asked, try to buy herself some time, and find a way out of here.  She wasn't going down easy, she could play his game.

"Alright, where to Alex?"  Sara gave him her best smile, trying to win him over.

Alex/Benny smiled back.  He gestured with the sword for Sara to walk out into the hall.  In the hall she saw a trapdoor in the ceiling, leading to the attic, she guessed.

"Pull down the ladder."  Sara pulled on the string and climbed the ladder into the attic.  What she found there was even more disturbing than the medieval room she had just left.  Stone walls had been built over the walls of the attic, making the room seem like it really was a tower in a castle.  The windows were arched with stained glass patterns on them.  In the center of the room was a sort of princess bed, with flowing sheer curtains on all sides.  Sara looked closer at the bed and saw leather straps to hold down arms and legs, binding someone to the bed.  'Oh shit.' She thought.

"Goodnight, princess." She heard Alex say.  She turned just in time to see him lift a sledge hammer over his head.  She let out one blood curdling scream, and then everything went black.


	10. Chapter 10

**Part 10**

Grissom had never driven so fast in his life.  He was totally unaware of the speed limit, the other cars swerving out of his way, the honking, and the swearing.  The only thought on his mind was Sara, he had to save her.  He turned off the headlights two blocks before he reached his destination.  He didn't want to be spotted if he could help it.  He parked haphazardly across the street and got out of the truck, and looked up at the two story house before him, where he knew Sara was.  As he stood there collecting his thoughts, wondering what to do, he heard a scream come from the house.  Sara!  She was in trouble.  The thought of her ending up like Mara Sever cut into his heart like a knife.  Somewhere, mixed in with the anger at this man and all other men like him in the world, the realization that perhaps he felt something for Sara that he had been ignoring was taking hold.  For a brief moment he had a flash of a picture of himself riding up to the house on a white horse and rescuing Sara, then carrying her off into the sunset.  That was ridiculous; the sun had set hours ago.  As quickly as the thought came, it was gone; it was time to get down to business.

Grissom pulled his gun and moved closer to the house, careful to stay behind trees and bushes whenever possible to protect himself from view.  He then began to circle the house to find a way in.  In the back of the house he found what he was looking for, the backdoor was unlocked.  Was this all a little too easy?  Could this be a trap?  The thought barely crossed his mind; all he wanted was to get Sara out of there.  He entered the house and found himself in a mud room off of the kitchen.  But the door to the kitchen was locked.  So much for the trap idea, this wasn't even a way in.  He went back out to the backyard.

On the other side of the house he found a window that was open just a crack.  If he could just pry it open, then he could slit the screen and climb in.  He looked around the backyard.  The shed.  Grissom jogged over to the shed to look for something that he could use to pry open the window.  He grabbed a hedge trimmer and ran back to the window.  The blade of the trimmer just fit between the window and the frame.  He slowly tried to pry open the window as quietly as possible.  If he heard Grissom trying to break into the house, Sara was done for.  Just the thought of that made Grissom shiver.  Eventually the window began to give way, and open.  Once he got it open far enough, he used the Swiss army knife in his pocket (never leave home without it) to slit the screen, and he climbed into the house.  The whole process couldn't have taken more than five minutes, but it felt like and eternity, he hoped that he wasn't too late.

He slowly made his way through the rooms, finding everything empty and dark.  He had yet to hear a sound in the house since the scream.  Could that have been his imagination?  Was the house really empty?  No, that was impossible; he had seen Sara's Tahoe in the driveway.  At that moment he heard a loud thud come from somewhere above him in the house, followed by a crash, and he silently moved towards the stairs, praying that he wasn't too late.

***Meanwhile, upstairs in the attic***

Sara awoke to find herself bound to the bed and gagged with some sort of cloth.  God did her head hurt.  Alex/Benny was nowhere in site.  Good, maybe she would have a chance to get herself out of this mess.  She took a second to assess her situation.  Her arms and legs were bound to the bedposts with the leather straps that she had seen just before he knocked her out.  She couldn't move enough to reach anything to cut herself out, so she was just going to have to pull.  She started working on her left wrist.  She could feel the leather stretching, but it didn't seem to be enough, she couldn't quite get her hand to slip through.  Then, just when she was about to give up and try to find a different way out, she felt her hand begin to slip, and it came free.  The pain was intense.  She was pretty sure that she had dislocated her thumb, but she would just have to live with that for now.  She pressed her hand against her side and popped her thumb back into joint, swearing under her breath.

She reached into her pocket and was relieved to feel the familiar metal lump, her Swiss army knife.  It was good to be prepared.  She used the knife to cut her other hand free, and then her legs.  She stood up and looked around the room.  She had no idea what Alex/Benny had done with her gun, so she would need to find some other way to protect herself.  She saw the sledge hammer that he had used on her sitting on a table by the door, and she went and picked it up.  Just then she heard movement below her, and she moved to stand in the shadows next to the trap door.  When that bastard came up the ladder she was going to nail him.

She saw his head rising up into the attic.  Fortunately, he was facing away from the bed so he had yet to see that she was no longer bound there.  She raised the hammer, took aim, and struck him dead on in the middle of the skull.  He fell to the bottom of the ladder like a rag doll, landing with a loud thump.  She looked down at him, satisfied with her work.  That is until she saw his hand move up to his head.  

'Shit!  I can't believe he is still conscious.'  She quickly grabbed the top of the ladder, pulling it up and shutting the trapdoor with a crash.  Time for plan B.  She jammed the hammer under the ladder so it was holding up the trapdoor like a sort of lock.  Then she ran to the closest window.  If she could just get to her truck she could call the police and they could take care of him, right now she just wanted out.  She opened the window and looked down.  Her vision was a little blurry, and her head hurt like hell, but she was thinking clear enough to know that it was way too far to jump; there was no way that she would make it without breaking both legs.  He would catch her for sure then.  There was a lattice on the side of the house, but it stopped five feet below where she was.

Sara ran back to the bed and ripped off the sheer curtains.  "Damsel in distress, my ass," she said, "I'm getting myself the hell out of here."  Tying the curtains to the bedpost, she prayed that they would hold and began to lower herself out of the window.  When she reached the lattice, she let go of the curtains and climbed safely down to the ground.  She had to stop and kneel on the ground for a moment until the yard would stop spinning.  Hmm, I guess watching all of those MacGyver re-runs did come in handy after all, Sara thought to herself as she lurched towards her Tahoe.  Once in the truck she locked the doors and grabbed for the cell phone she had left in the glove box, before she could dial 911, it rang.

"Sidle." She said.  It was Nick.

"Sara!  Where the hell are you?  Grissom thought you were in trouble."

"I was, I sort of am.  I am in my truck, but my keys are in my jacket in the house, so I can't go anywhere.  I came to question a possible witness on the case Grissom and I are on, and he turned out to be the perp.  Call the police and send them to 8430 Northway Drive, and step on it."

"Is Grissom there with you?"

"No, isn't he with you at the lab?"  
  


"No, I came in to talk to him about the case.  Something I said set him off and he told me to send police to the address on the paperwork he threw at me, which was the Vic's address.  He thought you were here and in trouble.  We got here and neither of you are here, and now Grissom isn't answering his cell phone."

Sara adjusted her rearview mirror and her breath caught in her throat.  Grissom's truck was parked across the street.  She looked back at the house.  He must have gone in after her.

"Damn!" Sara pinched the bridge of her nose between her thumb and forefinger.  That blow to the head she took was giving her one hell of a headache.  "Nick, he must have given you the wrong paper, come to the address I just gave you, I think Grissom is in the house with the killer.  I'm going to try to help him, but hurry."  With that Sara hung up the phone and stepped out of the truck.  Without the slightest hesitation, she jogged towards the house.

On the other end of the phone, Nick was in shock.  Now not only was Sara in trouble, but Grissom, too.  He ran over to where Brass and the other officers were, they had better hurry.


	11. Chapter 11

**Part 11**

Grissom, gun in hand, slowly made his way up the stairs to find the source of the crash he had just heard above him.  When he got to the top of the stairs, all he saw was an empty hallway, with four closed doors.  First door on the right, a bedroom, empty.  He walked further down the hall.  Second door on the right, bathroom, empty.  He walked further down the hall.  Door at the end of the hall, medieval decorations everywhere, but still no people.  He turned and looked back at the one remaining door.  Just as he was about to reach out and open it, the door burst open and a man came flying out at him.  The man went for Grissom's gun, but he held on tight.  The gun discharged into the ceiling, and a trapdoor came falling down, narrowly missing Grissom's head.  In the shock of almost being squashed by a falling ladder, both men lost their grip on the gun and it fell through the railing of the stairs and down to the first floor.  Before Grissom could react, the man pulled another gun out of his belt and pointed it at Grissom, he froze.

"I am really starting to lost patience with people who continue to bring firearms into my home.  Don't you know that these things are dangerous?  Someone is liable to get hurt."

"Alexander Holstein?"

"I see my fame precedes me.  Yes, I am he, and he is I.  But you may call me Alex.  Now, that you know who I am, I would like to know who you are, and what you are doing in my home."

"My name is Gil Grissom.  I work with the Las Vegas crime lab.  I am here looking for an associate of mine, Sara Sidle.  The police are already on their way, if you just give me the gun and show me where she is, this will all go a lot smoother."

"No, I don't think that will work Mr. Grissom.  Now, since you were so kind as to open the attic for me, why don't we proceed upstairs?"  Alex gestured to the ladder.  Grissom looked up the ladder into the dark attic.  Since he no longer had a gun, he decided her really didn't have a choice, and started to climb the ladder.

When he got to the top, he looked around the attic.  The walls were stone, somewhat like a castle.  There was a princess bed in the middle of the room, but the curtains were ripped off and draped out of one of the windows.  Sara must have escaped!  Thank God.  Now if he could just get himself out of here.

"Hands behind your back, Mr. Grissom."  Alex held the gun to Grissom's back with one hand while he used the other to wrap a long piece of leather around his hands, binding them tight together.  Then Alex led him over to a thick wooden post, and tied him there.  He set his gun on the table.

Alex began pacing the room, back and forth, back and forth.  "How many intruders must I deal with tonight?  The princess wasn't so bad, but disposing of a fellow knight is such a tedious task.  I was going to save her you know, save her from you.  I saw you watching her the day we met, I can read people.  A man like you is not worthy of a princess, but she loved you anyway.  Sometimes only in death can we escape our torture.  I would have saved her."

Grissom felt a lump in his stomach.  "Is she ok?"

Alex looked furious.  "I have no idea, she climbed out the window, and you broke into my house.  I've been a little too busy to worry about that!!"

Grissom sighed with relief.  If she got out, he knew she would be alright.  She could get to her truck and wait until the police arrived.  He only wished that they would get there fast enough to save him, so he could see her again.  It was just too unfair that so soon after he realized that he was in love with her he would die, without ever being able to tell her.

Alex picked up his sword and turned to Grissom.  "Normally to kill an unarmed knight would be a disgrace, but since you are intruding into my castle, I will treat you as an invader.  Goodbye, Mr. Grissom, it was a pleasure to meet you."  Alex raised his sword, took aim at Grissom's heart, and moved to strike.

***Meanwhile, in the yard…***

Sara jogged around the side of the house and saw the window that Grissom had entered through.  She lifted herself up and climbed into the house.  She saw the hedge trimmers he had used laying on the floor and reached to pick them up; at least it was a weapon.  It would have to do until she found her gun.  She stood up and a wave of dizziness almost made her fall over.  She wished the headache would just go away, it was making things difficult.  

Just then she heard a crash upstairs, followed by a gunshot, and she saw a gun fall down the stairs to the floor.  She stifled a scream, and tried to listen to see what was going on upstairs.  She walked lightly to the bottom of the stairs and picked up the gun.  She could hear Alex/Benny tell Grissom to go up into the attic; he must still be ok, at least for now.  She waited until she was sure they were both in the attic, and then made her way up the stairs.  

She paused as the bottom of the ladder.  Should she climb up?  What if he was waiting for her with the sledge hammer and knocked her out again?  Then Grissom and she were both done for sure.  She sighed and closed her eyes.  The memory of her dream earlier in the evening came back to her, she saw Grissom on the white horse riding up to rescue her from the castle, and she smiled.  'Well,' thought Sara, 'I guess it is about time that the damsel rescues the knight.'  And she started up the ladder; gun in hand, to go save Grissom.  

When she peeked her head up into the attic, and saw Grissom tied to a post, and Alex about to skewer him with his sword.  Acting on pure instinct, she raised her gun and fired.  Almost in slow motion she saw the sword fall to the ground, heard the resonating clang of the metal hitting the floor.  She froze, momentarily unable to comprehend that she had just shot someone.  Then she made her way over, kicked the sword away from his hand, and checked for a pulse, nothing.  He was defiantly dead.

She looked up at Grissom.  He looked stunned beyond belief.  Completely at a loss for words.  Sara stood and walked over to him to untie him from the post.  He stood, rubbing his wrists where the leather had pinched him, staring at Sara in utter shock.  She had saved him.

Sara smiled and crossed her arms.  "What's wrong, Griss?  Did you really think Lady Heather was the only woman that knew how to get out of leather bindings and kick some guy's ass?"  A Sly smirk appeared on her lips.  While Grissom was busy trying to think of a reply, the flashing blue and red light of a fleet of cop cars made its way into the room from the street.  "Do you have anything to say before we go downstairs?" she asked, looking at Grissom curiously.

"No." he said.  But what he thought in his head was 'Yes, I love you, Sara Sidle.'

"Then let's go, I'm sure everyone is worried, we had better let them know we survived, and that I saved your butt."  Sara voice trailed off and she closed her eyes and swayed a little on her feet.

"Sara?  Are you ok?"  Grissom asked, stepping closer to her and putting his hand on her arm.  But Sara never heard him; she simply fainted into his arms.


	12. Chapter 12

**Part 12**

When Sara woke up it was daylight, and she was in a hospital room with the entire CSI night shift surrounding her.  Catherine was on her cell phone in the corner of the room, Warrick and Nick were playing checkers on the end of her bed, Greg appeared to be hitting on the nurse that was adjusting her IV, and Grissom was sitting in a chair next to her bed, holding her hand and staring out the window.

Sara shifted in her bed and squinted her eyes.  "Can someone please shut off the sun, I have an unbelievable headache."  Suddenly all eyes were on her.  Greg was the first to speak.

"She's ALIVE!!  Bwa ha ha ha ha!"  The pretty nurse rolled her eyes and left the room in search of the doctor.  Greg shrugged.

"Of course she's alive, do you think a little bump on the head could kill our Sara?" smirked Nick.

"No, but a sledge hammer could have.  Good morning, Sara," replied Warrick, sweeping the checkers off the bed and into a bag.

"Good thing Sara has such a hard head," teased Catherine, hanging up her phone and walking over to the side of the bed.  "What ever possessed you to go back in that house when the police were already on the way?"

"Somebody had to save Grissom.  I found him tied to a post about to become a human shish-kabob on Alex's sword."

"Really?  Grissom, I thought you went there to save HER?" teased Greg.

"Why don't we all head out, leave these two to discuss who saved whom.  It's almost time for shift to start anyway, we'll stop and get some diner on the way," said Catherine, shepherding the men out of the room.  "See you later, Sara, Grissom."

When everyone else was out of the room, Sara looked over at Grissom.  He was still holding her hand.  He gave it a slight squeeze.  She smiled.

"How come you came to save me?"  asked Sara.

"You're my CSI, you're my responsibility.  I couldn't just leave you in danger.  And…" Grissom paused and glanced out the window before looking back at Sara, "and I couldn't bear the thought of you getting hurt.  What made you come back in after me when you were already injured?"

Sara's eyes misted over, just a hair's breath away from letting tears roll down her cheeks.  "I didn't think, I just reacted.  I needed to get to you, to know that you were ok."  Grissom nodded.

"Sara, since you have a week or so off, would you like to do something this weekend?"

Sara smiled.  "What did you have in mind?"

"Well, there is an 'Age of**  Chivalry Renaissance and Celtic Festival' this weekend."**

Sara groaned.  "No, no more chivalry, no more knights, no more swords.  Don't you think we've had enough of that for a while?"

Grissom nodded.  "Fair enough.  How about we rent a movie and I'll make you diner?"

"That sounds wonderful," said Sara, giving Grissom's hand a squeeze.  And with that thought she drifted back off to sleep, to dream of princesses rescuing knights, and riding off into the sunset.

**The End**


End file.
